‘NOTHING MORE’

“It’s now pending with us. That’s one of the bills that will probably have to wait until next year because there are basic differences between business and government on that one,” Mr. Belmonte said.

“I was hoping that we can come to a middle ground between the two of them, but so far there has been no middle ground,” Mr. Belmonte added.

“It will probably be just heard and nothing more.”

House Committee on Ways and Means chairman Rep. Romero Federico S. Quimbo of Marikina (2nd district) said separately that the committee is still collating data from stakeholders before starting public hearings.

“What the committee needs to decide on, as well as the DoF (Department of Finance), is the objective,” Mr. Quimbo said on the sidelines of a recent committee hearing.

“There are only three things we have to decide on: either it’s a bill that curbs mining — meaning we don’t want to urge [sic] mining, or is it going to be a bill that will raise revenues, or is it a bill that seeks to strengthen large-scale mining over the unproductive and damaging small-scale (counterparts)?”

To recall, the measure provides that the government’s share will be in lieu of corporate income tax, royalty to indigenous cultural communities, duties on imported specialized capital mining equipment, mayor’s fee and/or business permits “and other fees and charges imposed by host local government units.”

However, mining companies will still have to pay other duties: value added tax, capital gains tax, stock transaction tax, documentary stamp tax, withholding tax on passive income, donor’s tax, environmental fee, real property tax, Securities and Exchange Commission fee, water usage fee, as well as administrative and judicial cost and penalty.

INHERENTLY PROBLEMATIC?

Industry players insist that Congress’ apparent hesitation reflected problems of the draft law being pushed by the Malacañang-created Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC).

Nelia C. Halcon, executive director of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines, said via text: “When even Congress cannot find a